IT工程师申请美国MBA的优势和劣势是什么？

michaelchenma

其实纯engineer也没有那么悲观了。建议所有engineer，起码IT/high-tech的都好好读读hughlv上面的帖子。我这都申请完了，看看他的帖子对未来的规划也都是长进。

说到准备。首先你得有信心，you gotta believe you have what it takes to win。而且没有一个申请人是flawless，什么方面都完美的申请人也不需要读MBA。其次，play to your strength。我申请的时候一位过来人跟我说过"business school是培养未来business leader的地方，而不是将来的教授，政客，高级工程师。"我们这些纯做技术的，跟很多business personnel并不太打交道，所以更需要和过来人打交道。我当时把我自己的简历修改好后给一位做过咨询的朋友看，她说“你这是要干嘛？是要找下一份技术工作吗？business school的简历不是这么写的。”

其实我自己也是从这个纯技术往business这个转型当中才迈出一小步。CD上面有很多牛人，而且更可贵的是他们还愿意给出中肯的意见。多听多学习，少打口水仗。

REgirl07

Honestly, as an engineer applying to business school, you don't have much advantage at all.  Engineers are perceived to have worse communication and leadership skills, which business schools value highly.  Schools don't care for people who can do fancy calculus or fix a complex machinery.  They want people who have dealt with other people in complicated situations, people who have reached out and impacted others in a positive way.  In addition, engineer applicants are a dime a dozen, and you are also competing with all the ABC engineers and Indian engineers (and there are a LOT of them...).  I think a lot of applicants from China and India forget that advanced degrees aren't transferable across fields; just because you have a masters or a PhD in something else (even from a good university) doesn't automatically make you a good candidate for MBA.

So your strategy should be to demonstrate that despite the fact that you are an engineer, you still possess the same interpersonal, communication, and leadership skills that business schools want.  Have you organized teams to fundraise for a non-profit  cause?  Have you used your persuasion skills to convince people to do things one way or another?  Those are the things they want to hear about.  I'd stay away from emphasizing your masters and your "technical skills".  Doing that just further proves that you don't get it - that you are just yet another boring engineer who dwells in the technical world and can't really handle the business world.

michaelchenma

ah, com'on. No love for engineers? How cruel!

But yeah, REgirl07 nailed it again. I think all engineer-background MBA applicants need to read hughlv's post on engineer career development and REgirl07's post on MBA app tips.  I wish I had read this before.

And "Have you organized teams to fundraise for a non-profit  cause?  Have you used your persuasion skills to convince people to do things one way or another?" done both and a lot more in my extra-curricular activities. My gut feeling is that these stuff is what got me into a MBA program (barely). Pick something you are passionate about and want to see it changed, and just do it.

Someone previously mentioned "你要表达的是你不是一个typical engineer才行". A word of caution. This is a very slippery road, so you might want to be very careful how you write the essay. If in your job, you do a lot of non-typical engineer work, such as taking over business development, oversee operations, then maybe this is perceived as an organization failure since job responsibilities are not clearly defined. I am not saying you are confined in your engineering space, but my point is you wanna make sure you deliver the right message. And it is better to have someone read it over.  

Honestly, as an engineer applying to business school, you don't have much advantage at all.  Engineers are perceived to have worse communication and leadership skills, which business schools value highly.  Schools don't care for people who can do fancy calculus or fix a complex machinery.  They want people who have dealt with other people in complicated situations, people who have reached out and impacted others in a positive way.  In addition, engineer applicants are a dime a dozen, and you are also competing with all the ABC engineers and Indian engineers (and there are a LOT of them...).  I think a lot of applicants from China and India forget that advanced degrees aren't transferable across fields; just because you have a masters or a PhD in something else (even from a good university) doesn't automatically make you a good candidate for MBA.

So your strategy should be to demonstrate that despite the fact that you are an engineer, you still possess the same interpersonal, communication, and leadership skills that business schools want.  Have you organized teams to fundraise for a non-profit  cause?  Have you used your persuasion skills to convince people to do things one way or another?  Those are the things they want to hear about.  I'd stay away from emphasizing your masters and your "technical skills".  Doing that just further proves that you don't get it - that you are just yet another boring engineer who dwells in the technical world and can't really handle the business world.

-- by 会员 REgirl07 (2010/5/15 2:32:55)

lennyrichard

同意 michaelchenma, 工程背景不可怕，关键看essay怎么写。
上班的时候是工程师，可是一周40小时之外的时间都是由你自己支配的。
你可以去组织活动，你也可以去开自己的网站，还可以去旅游，工作职业只是你的生活中的一小部分，和你以后的职业规划可以有关系，也可以没关系。
就是看你在essay里怎么把你的生活和以后的计划联系起来，还让人听了觉得有道理，可行。

LZ你好，我自己的背景也是工程硕士然后做了6年的纯技术（连project management的经验都没有）。今年申请到UCLA的MBA。

MBA的申请主要就是扬长避短。可是如果像我们这种做纯技术的，MBA喜欢的长处不是很多。所以就得大量挖掘extra curricular activities等等。如果你不是今年非要申请，可以再花两年时间，做些extra curricular activities，哪怕工作中再丰富些。

你也可以参考MBAAdventure的建议，他说的很对。我当年也考虑过MFE，后来觉得那就是个金融业的技术活，还不如我在high tech做研发呢。

如果你有兴趣，可以联系我，michma(在) gmail.com。我们可以再讨论。

-- by 会员 michaelchenma (2010/5/13 23:59:59)

stq

说的不错。我这里再补充一些。
1 楼主既然是做测试又是在一家小公司作，那么申请top mba的机会不说是没有，也是非常小。
哪怕进去了，直接转金融的难度也不是一般的大。这个要做好心理准备。
如果你读MBA的唯一目的就是为了转金融，那么我不希望你付出了那么多后，最后却发现达不到自己的目标。

2 hughlv 把工程师发展的职业轨迹讲的很清楚。
我想说的则是，不管你走哪条职业发展路线，MBA并不是必需的。
那么你读MBA的目的何在？如果你不能转行去金融，还值得读么？

3 同样转行做金融，还有前台/中台/后台的区别。 你的背景直接进前台很难。但如果进中台/后台，做Quant,做Risk Management的话，MBA学位还没一个MFE好用。因为两个学位的侧重点不同，MFE更加quant,而MBA更加侧重于soft skills.  
而且哪怕进去了银行的中台/后台，也无非钱多一点，你要说这些工作有多有趣，上升空间有多高也不见得

4 工程师最大的弱点就是商业能力/金融能力/与人交流沟通/战略分析的能力。
你做过哪些事情可以证明你和其它工程师不同，你可以和其它商科背景的人在soft skill方面竞争呢？这也就是michael上面说的extra curricular activities

5 如果你纯粹的只是不想单纯做技术，想往商业方面转。
那么哪怕不转行金融，哪怕不读MBA, 也能想办法转作business analyst之类的活，和商业部门沟通，写些spec.
哪怕一样做IT，也能想办法转去金融公司里面做IT,  大摩之类的公司不是在上海有很大的IT中心么？
起码证明你对商业流程个方面有一定的了解，起码你对商业/金融不是一窍不通，起码你能把大摩的牌子放到你简历上。

如果你这步都转不过去，你如何说服学校，有了个MBA学位你就能达到你的目的？
如果你打不到目的，那么你肯定是个unhappy customer,学校招这种人干吗？

转行也好，转function/industry也好。并不是只有读MBA一条路。
读MBA只不过是整个职业转型中的一步，而并不时全部。
如果你真想转行，读书前就有很多东西可以做。
我不建议你现在就去读书。

Honestly, as an engineer applying to business school, you don't have much advantage at all.  Engineers are perceived to have worse communication and leadership skills, which business schools value highly.  Schools don't care for people who can do fancy calculus or fix a complex machinery.  They want people who have dealt with other people in complicated situations, people who have reached out and impacted others in a positive way.  In addition, engineer applicants are a dime a dozen, and you are also competing with all the ABC engineers and Indian engineers (and there are a LOT of them...).  I think a lot of applicants from China and India forget that advanced degrees aren't transferable across fields; just because you have a masters or a PhD in something else (even from a good university) doesn't automatically make you a good candidate for MBA.

So your strategy should be to demonstrate that despite the fact that you are an engineer, you still possess the same interpersonal, communication, and leadership skills that business schools want.  Have you organized teams to fundraise for a non-profit  cause?  Have you used your persuasion skills to convince people to do things one way or another?  Those are the things they want to hear about.  I'd stay away from emphasizing your masters and your "technical skills".  Doing that just further proves that you don't get it - that you are just yet another boring engineer who dwells in the technical world and can't really handle the business world.

-- by 会员 REgirl07 (2010/5/15 2:32:55)

iWait

你一个工程师，为什么要听别的行业的人告诉你优势劣势。他们能告诉你什么？
每年IT工程师进M7的不要太多。。。我和我身边很多朋友都是。

其实你的问题是，从你的描述来看你的背景在IT工程师里比较弱——实话实说。所以首先要考虑的是你的优势在哪里，而不是你这个职位的优势劣势。优势可以从很多地方挖掘，比如做过的项目，社会活动等等。大部分人一开始都觉得自己很弱，但一点点挖掘自己的经历之后可以发现很多闪光点。这样思考几周以后再给自己定位才比较准确。

michaelchenma

Another suggestion. Just apply this year to 1-2 schools, get your feet wet. A lot of people are offering a lot of conflicting advices. Unless you have gone through the application process once first-hand, you wouldn't know what you are missing.

Just think of the $200 app fee is a good prep for future (and the real) application a few years later.

stq

上面可能没说清楚。。

IT 工程师自然可以进MBA。。他也并不是完全就没戏。
但更重要的问题是读书的目的是什么。

如果读书的唯一目的是为了转到金融，特别是金融前台。那就需要考虑一下了，现在他是不是真的做好了转行的准备，是不是真的仅仅one top MBA away from making it.

开山怪

赞STQ
很中肯

cornflake

纯IT背景的进欧美顶级MBA很多，哈佛/Wharton/Insead/LBS/Chicago都认识有software engineer。之后就业来说什么方向都有，相对来说去金融少一些；high-tech的marketing和咨询更多一些。

申请essay里，除了楼上几位所说的课余活动体现你的leadership和不boring，你工作中也是有很多事例可以挖掘的。比如做为test engineer你发现bug后如何组织解决？你有没有主动提出一些建议改进测试流程？最终这些闪光点都要变成数字放在简历里，比如节省了多少钱或者提高了多少效率。这些只是一些例子。

其实技术工作都是比较boring的，别以为四大里那些会计师或银行里研究数据的就更有故事可写。他们也一样要深度挖掘，平凡的工作中寻找不平凡的闪光点（要么是结果要么是做事方式）。好好从自己生活和工作中全方位挖掘自己。